MSNBC Accused of “Racism” For Pulling Three Former Al Jazeera Journos From Anchor Slots During Israel-Hamas War
“This is racism. This is dangerous. This is journalistic malpractice. I hope other hosts on the network—people like @chrislhayes, @JoyAnnReid, @maddow, @Lawrence, and @alexwagner —stand up for their Muslim colleagues and walk out until MSNBC reverses this indefensible decision.”
Woke, anti-Israel leftists are melting down over news that left-wing network MSNBC “quietly” pulled three of their Muslim hosts from their respective anchor positions in the aftermath of the start of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
According to Semafor, the three were Ali Velshi, Mehdi Hasan, and Ayman Mohyeldin, all of whom are weekend anchors on the network:
MSNBC has quietly taken three of its Muslim broadcasters out of the anchor’s chair since Hamas’s attack on Israel last Saturday amid America’s wave of sympathy for Israeli terror victims.
The network did not air a scheduled Thursday night episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show on the streaming platform Peacock. MSNBC also reversed a plan for Ayman Mohyeldin to fill in this week on the network for host Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show on Thursday and Friday. Mohyeldin, an Egyptian-American journalist and veteran NBC News correspondent covered the conflict from Gaza for two years. In 2021, he aggressively questioned Israeli leaders on strikes on the territory. Two network sources with knowledge of the plans told Semafor that the network also plans to have Alicia Menendez fill in this upcoming weekend for Ali Velshi, a third Muslim-American host who on Sunday interviewed a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority.
Some staff at MSNBC have been concerned by the moves, feeling all three hosts have some of the deepest knowledge of the conflict. NBC says the shifts are coincidental, and the three continue to appear on air to report and provide analysis.
Though NBC says the moves are “coincidental,” it sure doesn’t sound like it:
The moves come as MSNBC — like the Democratic Party with which it’s often aligned — has swung into intense solidarity with the Jewish state after the murderous Hamas attacks. That shift has come with heated internal and external objections to anything that breaks with that solidarity, and has come with social media criticism of Hasan, Mohyeldin, and Velshi. Hasan has also been vocal on X, formerly known as Twitter, condemning the Hamas attack and calling attention to the plight of civilians in Gaza.
[…]
But over the past decade, NBC and MSNBC have struggled to cover the flare ups of violence in the Middle East without internal controversy, which has largely centered around three of the network’s Muslim anchors, who are among the highest profile Muslim voices in American journalism: Mohyeldin, Hasan, and Velshi.
Mohyeldin, Hasan, and Velshi, I should point out, all used to work for Al Jazeera, which is nothing more than a propaganda outlet for its funder, the Qatari government, which has provided safe haven to Hamas’ leaders.
Hasan, in particular, is… well let’s just say that you can take Mehdi out of Al Jazeera but you can’t take Al Jazeera out of Mehdi:
What a stark contrast between Hasan’s bodyguarding of Qatar, with his constant attack-dog stance versus the sole Jewish-majority country, the State of Israel. Hasan stated in 2021 that he considers himself “an anti-Zionist and critic of the Israeli state and its ongoing ethnic cleansing project,” and calls Israel “a government that practices apartheid.”
As the official mouthpiece of the emirate of Qatar, Al Jazeera gives Qatar outsized heft in regional diplomacy, which it uses to promote the Islamist terrorist group Hamas, which it physically hosts and funds by millions annually.
[…]
Hasan has urged support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which calls not for peace, but for Israel’s destruction. He criticized the United Arab Emirates for playing Israel’s anthem, “Hatikvah,” during the peacemaking visit of President Isaac Herzog.
Here’s Hasan during his days as a columnist for The Intercept acting as an apologist for Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar on the issue of BDS:
"The Truth about Israel, Boycotts and BDS"
– my latest video essay for @theintercept features some myth-busting of pro-Israeli, anti-BDS talking points, especially in the wake of @IlhanMN & @RashidaTlaib's recent & controversial support for BDS: pic.twitter.com/stpc2bBJD8
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 14, 2018
Here’s Hasan during his time as a presenter for Al Jazeera equating non-Islamists to cattle:
🔸️This is Mehdi Hasan from MSNBC, who has a show on the network & regularly shows up to give his analysis.
🔸️Here he is calling people cattle & saying people who don't bend the knee to Islam have "no intelligence." 👇 pic.twitter.com/kkkJRNXCVY— The Constitutional Conservative (@TheCCShowcast) October 10, 2023
In response to news that MSNBC has for now shifted Mohyeldin, Hasan, and Velshi away from their anchor roles, they were accused of “racism” by some, while some members of AOC’s Squad including AOC herself fretted over the move and what it meant for diversity in the newsroom:
This is racism. This is dangerous. This is journalistic malpractice. I hope other hosts on the network—people like @chrislhayes, @JoyAnnReid, @maddow, @Lawrence, and @alexwagner—stand up for their Muslim colleagues and walk out until MSNBC reverses this indefensible decision. https://t.co/l2AxxjBM8r
— Abdallah Fayyad (@abdallah_fayyad) October 13, 2023
Imagine, for one second, if the only three Jewish broadcasters on a network were removed from the anchor’s chair because of current events. What word would you use to describe that? https://t.co/DokS1tbBSN
— Katie Halper (@kthalps) October 15, 2023
THIS IS WHO WE ARE: Cowardly Bigots. https://t.co/BbzKyNMQCD pic.twitter.com/sgAko6mQsV
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 15, 2023
Sunday will be a big test for MSNBC. If their 3 Muslim anchors still don't host by then that would mean Mehdi will be sidelined for a week since his commentary on Gaza, Velshi didn't host this weekend, & Ayman didn't host this weekend as well. A horrible look for the network. https://t.co/6KZzsbQ41m
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) October 14, 2023
The ethnic cleansing of MSNBC. https://t.co/AY0nuMfmXg
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 13, 2023
Muslims face routine discrimination and silencing campaigns based on our religion.
MSNBC is one of the few networks to give Muslim-Americans a prominent platform. This is a shocking decision that runs counter to our values of a free and open press. I hope it will be reversed. https://t.co/M2CTb6acKa
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 14, 2023
In a time of overwhelming developments in the Middle East, the public needs comprehensive coverage with diverse, experienced perspectives.
The removal of Muslim anchors during such a sensitive time is highly concerning. We must not repeat the mistakes of post-9/11 fervor. https://t.co/HtEoV4xPBG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 14, 2023
Could it be due to MSNBC’s ratings tanking in the past week because of their Hamas apologists who basically provided justifications for the murder and rape of Israeli women and children?! 🤔
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) October 14, 2023
Hikind is probably not far off the mark:
While @FoxNews has had significant increase in viewership & more viewers than @MSNBC & @CNN combined compared to last week before war, MSNBC has lost viewers.
Total Viewers change WED Oct 4 to Oct 11
Fox News up 480,722
CNN up 121,111
MSNBC down 319,562 pic.twitter.com/6cezZh1Fge— RoadMN 📈 (@RoadMN) October 13, 2023
It's likely plummeting ratings are why the left-wing @MSNBC has taken @mehdirhasan @AliVelshi & @AymanM off the air.@NBCNews, of course, won't admit it is due to their pro-Hamas anti-Israel stance, which is likely causing concern for executives & advertisers. https://t.co/Anm1SdDMgw
— RoadMN 📈 (@RoadMN) October 14, 2023
As it turns out, most Americans don’t care to tune in to a network that has come off as little more than a grotesque mouthpiece for the terroristic Hamas government. After all, even if they did want to get the Hamas perspective they could just go straight to the source – Al Jazeera – rather than MSNBC, right?
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
When did Muslim become a race?
The day before yesterday.
Bingo! I’ve been asking that question for years.
When money is involved.
Well, you know, the racist left sees a brown person and they all look them same to them.
Don’t worry, they will be back, probably tomorrow
The 4 Karens that watch them are extremely ticked off and on the phone with the manager right now.
Deteriorating ratings draw, again, is the likely culprit. Aligning yourself with the barbaric butchers of Hamas is gonna make even the chardonnay sipping indy/left leaning suburban soccer Mom squeamish about viewing.
You may openly attack Saturday people and Sunday people, but you may never speak a word against Ramadan people.
Mixed metaphor. The appropriate name is “Friday people”.
Thanks Milhouse. In the future I’ll try to get all my ducks on the same page.
“…that left-wing network MSNBC “quietly” pulled three of their Muslim hosts from their respective anchor positions in the aftermath of the start of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.”
Translation: we never should’ve hired em in the first place.
ALL TV is a business and msnbc has already lost one-third of its viewers in just a week. They know these three propagandists will run off another third with their evil screed is allowed to spew it. They’ll be back when things cool off after all it is msnbc!
Or this is the most delicious troll imaginable.
“I hope other hosts on the network—people like @chrislhayes, @JoyAnnReid, @maddow, @Lawrence, and @alexwagner—stand up for their Muslim colleagues and walk out”
A week without Reid, Maddow, Hayes, and the others, spewing their inky spleen? The horror! The horror!
I love the fact that I canceled my cable contract and am now streaming (and paying for) content that I want to watch. I no longer pay for networks I don’t like.
So MSDNC is no longer getting my &$$
May they die a quick painful death as a news channel. Or perhaps Al Jazerk can claim them.
Cry of Racism is the first stop of Leftists
THIS is the power of Bud Light… the Corporations et al are finally realizing that there are consequences to taking a position.
Al Jazeera is a propaganda network and the hiring of such personnel is a craven surrender to terror . It is as if the legacy media hired employees of Goebbels to report on the Holocaust-no one who has ever worked for Al Jazeera should be providing coverage or working for any media entity
Insert here my public service announcement reminding everyone that Jake Tapper cut his teeth writing and telling lies for Sarah Brady. Public airing of this fact grates Tapper like the existence of copies of Barbarella grates Jane Fonda.